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Building a Mobile Analytics Dashboard for Android and iOS

i need desc A practical look at building a mobile analytics dashboard to monitor DAU, WAU, MAU, installs, crashes, ANRs, and top crash issues across Android and iOS

Ramireddy

Introduction
As mobile applications grow, simply looking at download numbers is not enough.
We also need to understand how many users are actively using the application, how installations are changing over time, and whether crashes or ANRs are affecting the user experience.
To bring these metrics together, I worked on a Mobile Dashboard that provides a single view of Android and iOS application analytics.
The goal was to make it easier to answer questions like:
  • How many users are active today?
  • How is weekly and monthly activity changing?
  • How many Android and iOS installs are we getting?
  • Are crashes increasing?
  • Which crash issues are affecting users?
  • Are there any ANR trends that need attention?

Dashboard Overview

The dashboard is organized into several sections:
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MOBILE DASHBOARD
│
┌──────────────┼──────────────┐
│ │ │
DAU WAU MAU
│ │ │
└──────────────┼──────────────┘
│
Install Overview
Android | iOS | Total
│
Daily Active Users
│
Daily Installs
│
┌────────────┴────────────┐
│ │
Android Crashes iOS Crashes
│ │
└────────────┬────────────┘
│
ANR Trend
│
Top Crash Issues
The idea is to provide both high-level KPIs and detailed application health information in one dashboard.

1. DAU – Daily Active Users

The first KPI is DAU (Daily Active Users).
It shows the number of users actively using the application on a daily basis.
The dashboard combines:
1
Android + iOS
This gives a quick view of overall daily engagement.
DAU is useful for understanding whether the application is being actively used and whether user activity is changing over time.

2. WAU – Weekly Active Users

The second KPI is WAU (Weekly Active Users).
Instead of looking at activity for a single day, WAU gives a broader view of user engagement over a weekly period.
Having both DAU and WAU together makes it easier to understand whether users are returning to the application.

3. MAU – Monthly Active Users

The third KPI is MAU (Monthly Active Users).
MAU provides a longer-term view of application usage.
Together:
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DAU → Daily engagement
WAU → Weekly engagement
MAU → Monthly engagement
These three metrics provide a quick overview of application activity.

4. Install Overview

The next section focuses on application installations.
The dashboard separates:
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Android
iOS
Total
This makes it easier to compare the two platforms and understand the overall installation trend.
For example:
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Install Overview

Android | XXXXX
iOS | XXXXX
Total | XXXXX
This gives the team a quick understanding of the application's installation footprint.

5. Daily Active Users Trend

A KPI gives us the current picture, but a trend tells us the story.
The Daily Active Users Trend helps visualize how user activity changes over time.
For example:
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Users
│
│ ╭──╮
│ ╭───╯ ╰──╮
│───╯ ╰────
└────────────────────
Date
This can help identify:
  • Increasing engagement
  • Decreasing activity
  • Sudden spikes
  • Unexpected drops
Instead of looking at one number, we can understand the overall direction.

6. Daily Install Trend

The dashboard also includes a Daily Install Trend.
This helps track installation activity over time for the mobile applications.
The trend can be useful when evaluating:
  • New releases
  • Marketing campaigns
  • Product launches
  • Changes in user acquisition
  • Differences between Android and iOS
The main goal is to understand how installation activity changes rather than looking only at the total number.

7. Android Crashes

Application stability is an important part of mobile analytics.
The dashboard includes a dedicated section for Android Crashes.
This allows the team to monitor crash activity and identify whether the application is becoming less stable.
A sudden increase in crashes can be an early signal that something needs investigation.

8. iOS Crashes

The dashboard provides a separate view for iOS Crashes as well.
Keeping Android and iOS crash metrics visible separately makes platform-specific issues easier to identify.
For example:
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Android → Crash Trend
iOS → Crash Trend
This helps the development team determine whether an issue is affecting one platform or both.

9. ANR Trend

Another important metric is the ANR Trend.
ANR stands for:
Application Not Responding
ANRs can indicate that an application is becoming unresponsive and can negatively affect the user experience.
Instead of checking ANRs separately, the dashboard places the trend alongside other application health metrics.
This makes it easier to identify changes over time.

10. Top Crash Issues

The final section focuses on Top Crash Issues.
Knowing the total number of crashes is useful, but knowing which issues are responsible is much more actionable.
The dashboard can be used to identify the most important crash issues and prioritize investigation.
The general workflow becomes:
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Crash detected
↓
Identify top issue
↓
Investigate root cause
↓
Fix application
↓
Release update
↓
Monitor crash trend
This creates a feedback loop between monitoring and development.

Bringing Everything Together

The main advantage of this dashboard is that it combines user engagement, installation activity, and application stability into one place.
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Mobile Application
│
┌─────────────┼─────────────┐
│ │ │
Users Installs Stability
│ │ │
DAU/WAU/MAU Android/iOS Crashes/ANR
│ │ │
└─────────────┼─────────────┘
│
▼
Grafana Dashboard
Instead of switching between multiple dashboards or manually checking different metrics, the team can start with one centralized view.

Why This Dashboard Is Useful

The dashboard helps answer three major questions:

1. Are users using the application?

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DAU
WAU
MAU

2. Are users installing the application?

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Android Installs
iOS Installs
Daily Install Trend

3. Is the application stable?

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Android Crashes
iOS Crashes
ANR Trend
Top Crash Issues
Together, these provide a more complete picture of the mobile application.

What I Learned

Building this dashboard helped me understand that monitoring is not only about infrastructure metrics.
For mobile applications, we also need to look at the user experience.
A good dashboard should help connect:
Users → Usage → Installs → Crashes → Application Health
The goal is not simply to create more charts.
The goal is to create a dashboard that helps teams understand what is happening and decide what to investigate next.

Final Thoughts

The Nextenti Mobile Dashboard brings important Android and iOS metrics into a single view.
The current structure focuses on:
DAU → WAU → MAU → Installs → Active User Trends → Crash Trends → ANR → Top Crash Issues
This gives a simple starting point for understanding both mobile application growth and application health.
My approach is:
Collect → Visualize → Analyze → Identify → Fix → Monitor
#AWS #Grafana #MobileAnalytics #Android #iOS #DevOps #Monitoring #CloudComputing
# grafana# monitoring# devops# devops-pro
Any opinions in this article are those of the individual author and may not reflect the opinions of AWS.
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